We have booked both as party of four and party of five, all adults. After my next cruise in September, my daughter and I will be platinum which will give us the advantage of earlier booking for the best prices during peak periods. It seems your primary question is financial.
Here is the things that I do in order to get the best financial prices.
It’s all in how you look at the room that can make the difference in price. For example if the room is just a place to change and a place to sleep, you are definitely going to have a much lower cost vacation on a
Disney cruise.
You could have an inside family sized room and enjoy the ship areas to relax.
For example,
do you need to sit in your room and watch TV from the bed? Would you be able to go on the deck sit in the lounge chair next to the outdoor theater and the Jumbo screen/stage up there? Could you go to a movie?
Did you need to sit on your own veranda in your pajamas? Or could you be dressed and find a quiet place on the ship to have your morning coffee and people watch and enjoy the outside views by going on deck away from the pools?
Disney has a in cabin tv channel that will show you what it looks like outside live from the front of the ship. So you really don’t even need a window.
My daughter and I will be canceling a five person handicap veranda cabin on the Wish for September and changing it to a windowless cabin for her and I instead.
I personally enjoy a window, for about $30-70 more a day. I usually line ones that are a little larger. But my daughter has inherited my “rope-drop” attitude and wants to save money to be spent on WDW just before our cruise.
Getting the few family rooms usually means getting them early. I (60-female), have slept on the couch, Murphy bed, and 3x’s on the bed because I usually offer the bed to my parents. Only one couch was uncomfortable which was in the handicapped room on the Magic.